Lantern's Origin Story: How It Began
by gayAndreadytoRoll
Summary: Ladies, gents, and non-gender conforming individuals, it's time to dust off Lantern's crappy origin story and tell you all how it began. Learn the tale of Lantern Louver, who honestly needs a new name, jesus. GMAD story, enjoy.
1. author's note

**oh hey, i didn't see you there. hello! yeah, i literally couldn't see you because this is a computer and i'll never be face to face with the people who for some reason read this...**

 **anyways.**

 **i made a origin story for my GMAD character, lantern. they're a demon/human/vampire hybrid. what a mouthful. try and make that description into anything other than a mary sue, geez.**

 **i don't plan on many people reading it, but i plan to completely remake lantern's origin story, even personality traits and lore shiet. why? because their old story is full of plot holes and a too much magical power, and not enough character flaws. poor lantern, they deserve better.**

 **so, this awkward author's note (which i'll probably take down) is the start to motivating myself to finally start making GMAD stories again. i have not written** ** _anything_** **for quite awhile, all i've done is watch youtube videos and cry.**

 **well, no more. i need to start writing again if i ever plan to be good at 'creative writing' in highschool. i need a career people!**

 **man, how long has it been? hold up, let me check the date on that origin story...**

 **GEEZ! august 18, 2015. that's a long time, and it also happens to be my mother's birthday. i guess my crippling depression is punishment for writing fanfiction on meh' mama's birthday. sorry mom.**

 **don't count on me updating soon since i'm an asshole, but technically it's been over a year since this origin story was made and i've been wanting to change it for awhile now so.**

 **here i go.**


	2. prologue

**'it's time to begin, isn't it? i get a little bigger but then i'll admit, i'm just the same as i was. now don't you understand, i'm never changing who i am.'**

* * *

It was not a healthy marriage.

There wasn't a wedding, so there's no way of telling if it even was an official marriage. You would see them, on the streets. Cordelia and Alcatran, woman and man, wife and husband.

The world says that's the way it's supposed to be, so you wouldn't spare them a second glance.

But if you saw. If you saw the way they spoke to one another, you would know. How Cordelia would reach out to hold Alcatran's hand, and how he would instantly tense up and refuse the gesture. How in their kitchen, arguments would be frequent much to the concern on their neighbors. Screaming. Crying. Cries of, "I didn't mean it, forgive me!" and "I'm sick of being like this!".

Cordelia was an average human. A redhead who dropped out of college with no where to turn, met someone successful and without even realizing it manipulated her way into marriage, and finally had a job again.

A successful businessman. You could notice little thing's about him, how he wouldn't go out into the sun without an umbrella or how he always wore sunglasses. But you can dismiss it, because there are more important things going on in your life. Alcatran has no use to you.

You would never check his background, because it's not worth your time. You would never learn that he doesn't have an official birth certificate or how he has sharp front teeth. Unnatural things.

No one ever knows. You wouldn't.

Cordelia is good at hiding how things work. She tries so hard. She tries to convince her sister that she _is_ eating healthily, but it's a lie. When her mother dies the last thing she says to her is a lie, 'I'm fine.' It's a lie, and she lies when holding her dead mother's hand still. It's awfully dramatic, but she would never make a big deal about it. 'Me and Alcatran get along just fine.' she would say to her brother.

'Alcatran and you.' her brother would correct her grammar, not even looking at her.

'Ah, yes.' She bits her fingernails. It's lie, and no one ever knows.

Arguments seem to burn their throats, and tears fall constantly. But it always ends with a kiss, or something more. A resolution. Forgiveness. Forgetting. Pretending.

It isn't healthy.

Alcatran is a strange man. Disturbed some say. Clinically insane. 'There's something wrong with him.' people would whisper. 'He should see a therapist.' He was a demon in their eyes, and they saw him as a problem to be dealt with rather than a friend to make. But they would never confront him about it. No one saw him as a friend or someone to believe in. But Cordelia believed in him.

She shouldn't have.

One night, it goes to far. Something happens. During love. And if you are a certain age, you _know_ what that means. Cordelia is pregnant. She is pregnant with a child, and neither of them knows what to do.

Cordelia knows what Alcatran is, and she doesn't know if she could handle a child on top of the relationship she is in. So? Alcatran leaves.

He leaves his wife, and ends up corrupted. Nothing but a note. A note saying, 'I'm sorry, honey. You need space. You need your life, and I need mine. Goodbye.'

Cordelia throws it in the trash, and several months later everything changes. It hurts, but it happens. Like everything in her life. A child is born. Freckled little child, strange little child. Red eyed little child. Her little child.

The child grows, and grows. All the little things she wants her child to experiences. A trip to the beach, followed by an instant need to stay in the shade, for some reason. The time when her child shows up with a dead rodent on her doorstep, like a cat. The day she realized small fangs were growing into her child's mouth, and how their red eyes would glow orange when they were angry.

You know, all the little things a completely _normal_ child experiences. She tries to convince herself that this isn't happening.

Cordelia tries to imagine that Alcatran never left her, and that they never fought. And she did have a child, but a happy and healthy child. A human child. She tries constantly to trap herself within her delusions, but in time she realizes there is no point, and crumbles. She digs herself deeper and deeper into denial, trying to act like nothing is happening. Lying to her child's friends and her friend's parents. Absolutely nothing that comes out of her mouth is the truth anymore, and it's more than she can take. But she has to keep going.

If she gives up, it's letting the person who hurt her win, and after awhile she realizes there isn't much left that she can do.

Her body may feel weak but she's still here.

All she can do is watch her child grow.

She watches, and almost feels as if she's going numb. He's gone. Everything seems to be over, but at the same time it feels like the beginning of something bigger.


	3. chapter one

**'love doesn't discriminate, between the sinners and the saints. it takes, and it takes and it takes. we laugh and we cry and we make our mistakes.'**

* * *

Lantern was not a normal child, that much was obvious.

At age five, fangs started to grow into their mouth, much to Cordelia's concern. After their first day of school, Cordelia decided to home school them after they bit another child.

'Better home school them now, before what is left of this family gets sued.' she could say to herself. The child was energetic, to say the least. They would run around the house at inhuman speeds, their pale bare feet pitter-pattering against the cold tile floor. Constant foot tapping. Nail biting. Hand flapping.

Lantern wouldn't stay still.

They couldn't leave the house without an umbrella, much to their confusion. 'It's for your safety.' Cordelia would say, without really explaining anything. The lack of children their age kept Lantern from ever realizing how abnormal their upbringing was. Most kids didn't stay inside so much, and most kids didn't disappear at night.

Speaking of which.

Lantern, at age five, would start to disappear at night. Cordelia would wake in the night to hear a thud from their room, and rush there. But Lantern would already be gone. An hour later, there would be dog-like scratching at the front door. Behind the door was her child, covered in blood, eyes glowing, clasping a dead animal between her teeth firmly.

It was disgusting at first. But all that happened was Lantern continuing to disappear, and after awhile Cordelia realized there was nothing else that she could do expect let her child eat.

But these strange occurrences weren't the only strange thing about them. No, there was more.

Lantern was having trouble on deciding what to wear.

It sounds weird like that, but put it this way: One day Cordelia would put her 'daughter' in a dress and 'she' would have no trouble going to church in it. But other days, and more frequently it would seem, Lantern would change 'her' mind at random, throwing fits in the middle of church.

They'd be standing, listening to the priest speak, when Lantern would start to shuffle their feet. Then they would start shaking, and then let out a loud yell, pulling at the hem of dress. Not trying to take it off, but showing 'she' was uncomfortable in it. The other members of the church member would stare, leaving Cordelia embarrassed.

Outside the church, Cordelia would yell at the short-haired child.

"What was that?!" she snapped, losing her patience. "Why can't you just be a girl in a dress? And if that's not what you want, then what _is_?"

Lantern would start to cry like an eight year old, because that's what they were. They'd sink down onto the church steps and sob until they were comforted. Clutching the umbrella between their small fingers, they'd shake in the sunlight, pale as ever.

"Mommy, you don't get it! I'm not a girl in a dress!"

Cordelia was mad, and felt her eye twitch as she rubbed her child's back. She opened her mouth to say something, but Lantern would cut her off.

"I'm not a boy in a dress, either! I'm just _me_ in a dress!"

It was at that moment that everything seemed to fall into place. And at the same time, it made no sense.

'I can accept that my child comes home with dead animals.' She slowly enveloped Lantern in a hug. 'I can accept this...'

And that was also the moment that Cordelia realized she had been neglecting the truth for so long. She had a child, and she had to pour all of her love into them, no matter how abnormal they seemed.

Things almost seemed to get better from then on. Sure, Lantern would eat stray cats, but... Cordelia knew that Alcatran was probably the same. He probably drank human blood too.

This was just a child.

Her child.

And even though acceptance seemed to grow after that day, there was still some sort of barrier between the two. A barrier they couldn't seem to knock down. Cordelia realized the same barrier had existed with Alcatran.

The difference here is that he never tried to break it down.

Lantern was furiously trying to destroy it.

The barrier broke when Lantern was ten years old, their fangs sharper than ever and their appetite ravenous. The two of them decided to watch a movie, and Lantern started to realize something. The villain on the screen. It had red eyes. Sharp teeth.

As the monster laughed and tortured the human main character, Cordelia's child began to shake and shake. The hero fell to the ground before kicking the villain backwards, and beat them up, calling them a monster. A monster who had done terrible things. A murderer who didn't even walk in the sun.

The small redhead threw her popcorn onto the coffee table in front of them, much to Cordelia's confusion and ran upstairs.

It took two full minutes, but Cordelia found Lantern underneath the bed in the old room had belonged to Alcatran. The location chosen made her heart sink.

Lantern was crying, but not like they had on the church steps at eight years old, not sobbing. Not a body wracked with loud cries and hot tears and red cheeks. Rather a body slightly twitching, hands covered a face, quick and fast tears. Crying.

Crying softly.

Cordelia, dressed in a blue T-shirt and jeans, crouched down onto the floor so she could be level with her kid.

"Lantern? What's wrong?"

There was a long silence, a couple sniffling sounds, then-

"Mommy... am I a monster?"

Cordelia's heart almost shattered in two. She had never felt this sad in her life.

Not even when her mother died or Alcatran left her. No, never. Rejection, death.

But this was her child, something she had brought into the world. Something she wanted nothing more than to be happy. It was vision distortion, it was a horrible realization, yet also warm.

It was... something.

She reached underneath the bed and slowly pulled Lantern's small hands away from their face, and wiped off some tears with her own slender and long fingers.

"No. You are the most beautiful thing in the world to me, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise."

After awhile, Lantern came out from under the bed and they both held onto one another, never wanting to let go.

A year later, everything changed.

For better or worse? That's not even a question. For the worse. This change was for the worst.

It was late at night, and Lantern was stalking a rodent in their backyard, their fangs glinting. They were hungry, and tired.

Then a light shone. A small light, like a firefly. But it got bigger and bigger, much like the headlight of a car or a large flashlight. Eventually, the light got shone so large and bright that the author ran out of things to compare it to. That's how big it was.

Lantern stared at the light, which was a pale blue and almost seemed to form a gateway, like they had seen in all those fantasy movies. A huge gateway. What to? In all the movies an eleven year old Lantern had seen, the portal always stayed, and let the main character come back to their original world.

So, this complete obliviousness and no fear at all, the short-haired redhead walked into the portal, which quickly closed behind them.

Little did they know that was the last they'd be seeing of their world.


End file.
